Which animals typically get the best deal?

I'm not sure if a thread like this has been posted before, but which animals do you think get the best enclosures typically? Perhaps meerkats or prairie dogs, or maybe poison dart frogs?

 

I think Flamingos, penguins, lorikeets and of course Ring Tailed lemurs

 

What do you mean by "best"?

 

Definitively not flamingo's, seen as most are open-topped enclosures. The same goes for most ducks and pelicans. Lemurs in general often get good enclosures indeed. Meerkats and prairie dogs actually get decent exhibits, but rarely something extraordinary good. Penguins are the same category, although for the Spheniscus species there are indeed a decent amount of excellent enclosures.

Reptiles and amphibians depends a lot on the zoo, in some zoo's like Antwerp, Burgers' and Landau they have mostly excellent enclosures. In some other zoos however, this is quite the opposite. Sometimes it's also a mix of the two, as seen in Pairi Daiza with lots of terrible and lots of outstanding reptile enclosures. In general the smallest species like frogs do tend to have rather good enclosures however, regardless of the zoo.

I believe nowadays lions are often getting really good enclosures compared to a lot of other species, seen as they seem happy with much less. Vultures are also getting the better end in many new enclosures, as they are suitable for large mixed aviaries (Blijdorp, Antwerp, Artis, Dierenrijk, Tierpark Berlin, Nordhorn, Leipzig, ...).

 

I guess the most space given their needs, best enrichment, enclosures that are closest to their naturel environment.

 

Monkeys usually have good outdoor exhibits. Enclosures in Budapest often little and not nice, but Ruffed lemurs and Golden-bellied mangabeys have good enclosures.
Ruffed lemur house and exhibit

 

Giant pandas. They often get really good exhibit to suit China.

 

Oh yes, true, I've never actually seen a visibly poor panda exhibit outside of China.

 

I wouldn't say that every giant panda exhibit is truly good though, I did find Pairi Daiza's for example to have a lack of privacy outdoors and Madrids does also look very open on photo's. This however seems to be the exception in Europe when it comes to the outdoor enclosures, when looking at photo's of some other enclosures like Beauval and Ouwehands.

 

They are, however, better than most bear exhibits, especially when one takes into consideration that they don't move around an awful lot. I agree with you about the specific exhibits though

 

I guess the zoo's I have visited are just a poor sample then, seen as most that I saw (Antwerpen, Burgers', Rheine, Duisburg and Olmen) had real good enclosures for their bears, with only Han sur lesse (Les grottes du Han) having a real bad enclosure at the time. The Asian black bears in Pairi Daiza and the Polar bears in Blijdorp were kinda in the middle, not terrible but not great either if I remember correctly. Of those two Blijdorp's was still rather towards the good side however in my opinion, but nothing compared to excellent enclosures like those of Emmen and Hannover.

 

I think the animal with the most consistently good enclosures in zoos are wolves. I don't think I've seen a single poor wolf exhibit in a major zoo. This likely has something to do with the fact that they can be exhibited year round, are not destructive to vegetation (unlike bears), and are relatively easy to contain (unlike cats). Many zoos in North America and Europe can easily build a wolf exhibit that blends in with the natural landscape of the zoo.

Honorable mention to otters, penguins and kangaroos, who also all have pretty good much of the time.

 

Have to agree with aardvark on his / her point on giant pandas.

From what I've personally seen these are a species that consistently do get "the best deal" in zoos and conservation in general.

 

Oddly enough, I don't think I've seen bad exhibits for rainbow lorikeets. I've been to several low-budget bird parks/farm parks that kept other common parrot species like budgie, cockatiel and various rosellas in relatively small and very bare aviaries, but lorikeets always seem to get sufficient aviaries. Probably helps that they're so popular for large walkthrough exhibits with feeding.

 

I'd have to say otters generally have the "best" enclosures. I'm sure there are always some zoos which will disprove that, but in my opinion, most otter enclosures I've seen (Asian Short Clawed mostly) have been suitable.

But that being said, I definitely agree with @Hvedekorn that lorikeets are up there too!

 

Then I don't think poison dart frogs would fall onto that list

 

With regards to giant pandas, the requirements that the Chinese government insist on in order for foreign zoos to keep them seem to be far more strict than local zoos have to adhere to.

Honestly, I think it's probably more to do with how they're presented, as a Chinese "product", than with just the welfare of the animals in mind.

I've seen some pretty piss-poor panda enclosures in Chinese zoos - very small, plain, concrete indoor areas with very small, grassy outdoor areas (which they don't always have access to).

 

I think lions tend to benefit a lot from new enclosures. In the wild, they rest for about 20 hours a day and are usually active at night. Zoos tend to give them big enclosures, even though lions tend to move relatively little when zoos are open.

 

There are always exceptions to general rules. I agree with much of what has been said already; but, with apologies to @Hvedekorn, I think that one of the worst exhibits in any zoo major UK zoo is for rainbow lorikeets at Colchester - a small indoor walk-through with its walls covered by plastic plants () and most of the central space taken up by a formal pond!
On a positive note, I would suggest that rhinos generally get a pretty good deal in modern zoos, although their needs are fairly simple, robust indoor accommodation, spacious paddocks and a mud wallow (which the rhinos generally help to maintain) plus a pool if they are Indian rhinos. It probably helps that they are such large and rare and popular animals.

 

Interesting! Like the pandas though, it tends to be because the zoo needs to have good accommodation to have them.